New Delhi [India], Aug 13 : The BJP is buoyed by the success of its ambitious membership drive as the party has already crossed its target of 2.20 crore and is looking to double the figure in the wake of its mammoth victory in the recently-concluded Lok Sabha elections.
According to sources in the party, a considerable number of members have joined through the NamoApp as well.
The BJP is likely to achieve the target of adding 4 crore new members under this drive which was launched on July 6, as per statistics projected by the party. The originally set aim was to enroll two crore new members into the party fold.
"According to the Constitution of our party, we need to increase our membership by 20 per cent and it is after the membership drive that we can have orgsational elections to elect leaders of various units in the party. We had 11 crore members and 20 per cent of it is slightly above 2 crores. However, we have already crossed that mark despite our MPs being tied up in the parliament session," informed Dushyant Kumar Gautam, national vice-president and membership drive co-in-charge.
Owing to the bumper response, the drive has been extended till August 20, as the senior party leaders expect the tally to cross 5 crore. The program was earlier scheduled to end on August 11.
A senior party leader informed that so far Uttar Pradesh is topping the chart with approximately 46 lakh new members joining the party within a span of one month. Lakshadweep is placed at the bottom of the chart with only 60 new members. "With islands, the problem is that they are sparsely populated and do not have a proper telecom network. These figures are bound to rise," the leader said.
The states which are scheduled to go for Assembly elections soon have seen an upswing in the membership drive. For instance, Haryana got 6.26 lakh new members and Maharashtra added 16.6 lakh new joinees. In addition, Jharkhand got 1.6 lakh people joining the BJP, while in the national capital as many as 12 lakh people joined the party via offline and online modes.
From Jammu and Kashmir, 7 lakh people have joined the party.
The BJP has extended the membership drive believing that more people will join the party fold when MPs, who were busy due the extended Parliament session, will take part in the program in their respective Lok Sabha constituencies.
Sources stated that these new numbers would reiterate that BJP is the largest political unit in the world.
The enrolment drive figures up to this week are 2.98 crores. The final numbers are expected to be submitted to the party by a panel headed by party vice president and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on August 20
Following are the stats pertaining to the membership drive:
Total new members - 2,98,61,737
New members who joined through missed calls - 2,29,11,075
New members via Namo app/website - 69,50,662
Total forms filled -- 1,33,56,851
Forms filled through missed calls - 55,46,169
Forms filled via Namo app/website - 78,10,682
Offline entries with membership number -- 74,985
Without membership number - 2,68,443
Messages received - 19,74,464
( With inputs from ANI )